But does he have the big Mo?

So North Carolina has been called for Barack Obama, too, meaning that Missouri is the only remaining unclaimed state. The Associated Press, via the Boston Globe, announced this with a bit of a flourish.

For those of you who can’t be arsed to click the above link, the final paragraph in the article reads as follows:

So Obama has not just redrawn the map. He’s printed an entirely new one.

Pretty sentiment, if not particularly objective or news-like.

Hell yeah!

I didn’t want to play Jinxy Jane yesterday, but I’m glad that I can now, without reservation, say that Barack Obama is the president-elect of the United States! I was asked at the party I attended last night, with all possible apologies and courtesy for the question, what Obama’s win meant to me, a black woman. And I have to say, I’m not sure whether I am approaching this from a place of racial pride. I have a lot of things going on right now. For the first time, the presidential candidate who I voted for won. I would have been happy if the new president-to-be could simply speak English, and instead we got somebody who is a captivating speaker, capable of raising people to almost religious levels of fervor and devotion (I think that sometimes it’s overdone, but it probably isn’t his fault that he is so charismatic). Plus, it’s exciting to know that the country will be run by a young guy, one who is certainly at a very different place in his life than I am, but who hasn’t been alive in eight different decades.

I find it moving to watch really committed Obama fans from all walks of life expressing such jubilation at his win. Walking back to Port Authority last night from Murray Hill, I saw so many people who were practically vibrating with happiness. On 5th Avenue, in front of the expensive stores, people spontaneously raised cries of “Obama” and “Wooooo!” People were so happy, and even the cops were smiling! I didn’t see one place where there was even a hint of trouble or unease. Everybody was too joyful to cause any sort of problem. I watched white people, young and old, cry tears of joy over the election of a black president. I looked at Obama and thought, “In a little over three decades, that could be my nephew.” I don’t believe that this proves that anybody in American can be anything, but I believe it moves us closer to that point than we have ever before been.

Out of the mouth of babes

I am now cracking up at Satanski, my 3 year-old nephew, who just said to me, “Tomorrow, when Barack Obama wins, I’m going to have a party!” I am guilty of fearing a jinx, but I don’t mind if he feels comfortable enough to say it. Never let it be said that I inflicted my neuroses on a minor (I almost called him an innocent minor, but that would be going too far).

Gone over to the dark side

Did I tell y’all that I bought a Mac the other day? No, of course not, because I haven’t really been updating the way I should. Moving on…I have wanted an Apple forever, but couldn’t justify buying one. Well, that’s all changed. I saw the new generation of MacBooks, and just knew that I had to have one. They’re so pretty, and so well-constructed. How can you not love a computer that is made out of a solid block of aluminum? Not possible, my friend.

I ordered the 2.4GHz MacBook on Monday morning while processing loans (much to the amazement of my coworker, who does not understand my compartmentalization skills at all), and added a printer, along with a larger hard drive. The printer wasn’t something that I actually needed (and neither was the computer, obviously), but there was a rebate of $100, and it seemed silly not to get something that I would have to buy in a few months anyway when I finally move into my own apartment. The very very very nice guy from the Apple call center (what up, Arnie???) told me that I could process the rebate as soon as I got the printer by going to apple.com/promo, filling out the form, and entering the serial number from the box. Except: wrong!

I really needn’t have waited at all, because the form did not require any information that I didn’t know already when I placed my order. The whole thing took like 37 seconds, and 25 of those were spent entering my name and address. I didn’t even need to put in the serial number, which means I lugged this ridiculously light box to my room for no freaking reason at all, except to admire my adorable, wireless printer (which my dad is already lusting after). Even if the delay had been necessary, it wouldn’t have been very long, as the printer arrived the next day (the computer is coming from Shanghai, so I won’t see that baby until Monday morning). I know it’s a cult, but glory be, I am happy to have finally joined the ranks of blithely dismissive Apple fangirls who simply do not understand why Windows users put up with all the hassle. Thanks, Apple!!

Project Runway Withdrawal

Despite the fact that Season 5 of Project Runway was not as compelling as earlier cycles, I miss the show. I miss ragging on Kenley, disdaining Suede’s overuse of the third person, oohing over Korto’s colors, and being completely blown away by Leanne’s visions. I am sad that there’s no more Top American Designer Michael Kors to make jokes about “Becky Home Ec-y” and whatnot, and Nina to be so unimpressed that she had no words. Now that the show is over for an undetermined amount of time, what’s going on in the PR universe?

• NBC Universal’s lawsuit against Lifetime TV has moved to federal court!!
• Entertainment Weekly does a Q&A with Leanne Marshall, Season 5 winner
• Chloe Dao (looking HOT), showed her new collection, seemingly to great approval

No more Mrazzy Goodness

I’ve been to three Jason Mraz concerts in the last week and a half, and I’m bummed that this great period in my autumn has come to an end. I enjoyed all three of the concerts, albeit in different ways.

New York was great because it was the first show that I attended this tour and I hadn’t seen Jason Mraz perform live in two years, and also because I’d never been to Radio City Music Hall before. I don’t know how I managed to avoid this in my 27 years, but it was just beautiful and definitely worth the wait. And!! THEY SERVE ALCOHOL. Sometimes they come in faux martini glasses with Rockette legs for stems. Cute, right? So yeah, I was totally lit up for that show. People were dancing in the aisles and I bonded with a group of Boston Red Sox fans in the row in front of me and ended up dancing with one of the cuter guys for a song or two.

The second show, which was at Brookdale Community College, was interesting because I’d never been to this particular school before. The energy of the college students was pretty great (except for this weird section of people who could not get enough of sitting on their butts and never stood until Mraz told them to get on their feet). I saw a Brooke Hogan lookalike in a way too short dress, and felt inexplicably cheered every time our paths crossed.

The Boston show was pretty fun, too. I was with a friend who is also a huge Mraz fan (and her much less fan-like but good sport fiance), so that was awesome. We’ve been to several shows all over the eastern seaboard (and Wisconsin), and it was nice to be back at a show with my #1 Mrazzy buddy. I brought my camera to this show, but left the freaking memory card in New Jersey. I missed most of the opening act searching high and low for a place to get a new card. Why do stores in Boston close at 7 pm? What kind of a city downtown closes so early? Just terrible. Anyway, I stumbled upon CEX, a British store just starting to appear in the US. It seems that pretty much everything they sell is used, but who cares when you can get a 4GB memory card for $20. Almost never happens at a brick and mortar place without some kind of an insane sale going on. I got back to the show in time to hear the last few songs of Lisa Hannigan’s set. and and took some pictures and video.

Here’s a video I took during the song “Live High.” All you Barack Obama fans, pay attention starting at the 1:15 mark.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I4mkn516OK8]

Showdown at Bryant Park

The Project Runway season 5 finale aired tonight, on the same night as the final presidential debate. I don’t know what to say, other than that whoever schedules the debates should be fired. You should not force the electorate to choose between two viable options. Thankfully, in this election, television is the only venue where this is currently an issue.

It seems that Kenley found the brattiness that she had APOLOGIZED for and toned down last week. Not that I thought she was being genuine then, but tonight she didn’t even bother to pretend. Cow. So anyway, she got on Leanne’s last nerve when they were picking models, and I can see how having Kenley’s delusional self trying to define your line for you and cast your fashion show might make you want to do her bodily harm. I just don’t get how Leanne restrained herself. Along with the wild overconfidence in her own designs came the other thing that she hid last week: her total contempt for Tim Gunn. Kenley was as rude and defensive as ever, and I can see that Tim washed his hands of her completely; he said his bit, realized that she was ignoring him, and walked away with an eye roll and a funny look at the camera. It it were either of the other two designers, I might have thought that that was the “Girls are weird” look, but since it was Kenley, I’m pretty sure it was more along the lines of “Bitch crazy.”

I liked Korto and Leanne’s more measured responses to Tim Gunn. She listened to him, and thought about what he said before commiting to a course of action. WHOA. Kenley actually did think about what Tim said, and changed something accordingly. It was never an issue of doing exactly what Tim said, but at least just listening to what he said.

And Korto decided to scrap two of her looks, which means that she had to design two new outfits during their work week. That is just nutty! During the prep parts of the episode, they kept showing her working on her new dresses. I feel like that should have been a better way to fix what she’d done, without creating two entirely new looks.

Now we’re off to the makeup part of the day. BORING! I like to wear makeup, but I don’t care about hearing the designers plan their models’ faces. It did crack me up, though, that Kenley wanted her models made up like pinup girls. This is my shocked face. Hair was also terribly uninspiring. I understand that designers have to think about every part of their models’ looks, but that doesn’t mean that I’m going to find all of it interesting.

LOL. Kenley and Leanne interviewed about each others’ collections, and they both hated what the other had done.

Oh my goodness, there was a dog in the work room. I was wondering what would happen if the dog pooped or peed on a design, but thankfully she only did it on the floor. Which was bad enough, but then the model cleaned it up while wearing one of Leanne’s dresses! Nuts! I am impressed that Leanne didn’t have a nervous breakdown right there, because I know that I would have lost my mind that happened to me.

On the morning of the show, the designers got up super early (it was still dark out when they got to the tent), and they talked about their nerves and hopes. Plus, they were all stoked that their families were in attendance. I was actually excited for all of them! But Oh! No! One of Jerell’s uglyass tree headbands was growing right out of Kenley’s head! All three designers were given fashion students as assistants, and Kenley talked about how hers were not allowed to touch her hand-painted dress, because she was the only one who knew how to handle and iron it. So of course the next shot is of Kenley allowing the dress she was ironing to fall to the floor. Way to show ’em, Kenley! Then, when were done laughing at Kenley, there were shots of celebrities, like Michelle Trachtenberg, and former contestants, such as last season’s winner Christian Siriano and season 2’s Uncle Nick.

Uh oh. One of Leanne’s looks ended up being weirdly limp and big on her model, so she had to switch her into a different dress. And Kenley managed to make a huge production of fitting the gorgeous Topazio into a dress and basically implied that Topazio was a fat fat fatty. Jerk. Heidi looked amazing (AMAZING) when presenting the designers and welcoming the crowd.  Heidi revealed that Jennifer Lopez was supposed to be the guest judge, but had to bow out due to a “foot injury.”  I’m sorry to hear that the former Flyy Girl was injured, but thank goodness it did not prevent her from kicking butt two days later in the Miami triathlon. I’m glad to know that it’s more taxing on one’s foot to sit down and judge a fashion show than it is to complete a triathlon. Going on this logic, I’ve decided that I will go out and win the Ironman just as soon as I recover from uploading this post.

So I have no respect for Jennifer Lopez for backing out at the last minute with such a flimsy excuse, but I love how Tim Gunn ended up being the guest judge. The designers, as you might expect, were not happy to have someone so knowledable about what was NOT good about their collections be the fourth judge, but I had to rewind a few times because I loved it when Kenley said, “Are you kidding?! Okay, maybe I should have improved my attitude.” Kenley? Realizing that her poor attitude might have screwed her out of winning this competition? Priceless! Tim said that he wouldn’t hold anything that he already knew against the designers, but I wonder how well he’ll be able to distance his judging from what he already knew.

Kenley went first. I didn’t love her collection, but it was well made and I totally believe that those pieces were her dream wardobe. I think she did an excellent job of realizing her vision, even if I wouldn’t want any of those clothes. Okay, I take it back, I’d wear the hell out of the little black dress and that cream dress with the flower pattern crossing diagonally across the front.

Korto’s collection was second. I loved most of it. I’m not sure about the longer of the new dresses. I loved how into it Korto’s relatives were. I appreciate that every item is something that would look good against my skin tone (I know that I would not necessarily look good in a lot of that).

While I loved loved loved Korto’s collection, Leanne‘s was just a different level of awesome. Her stuff was just so interesting and flattering, it’s like she was in a different, more complex competition. It wasn’t even fair to poor Kenley and Korto. Leanne definitely got the largest applause.
After the runway shows, former contestants and judges weighed in on whose work they thought was best. Chris March and Rami liked Korto (which surprises me; I would have pegged Rami as a Leanne kind of guy), Uncle Nick thought that Leanne’s work was ready for Elle Magazine, and Daniel’s endorsement of Kenley’s work showed that his taste has in no way improved since he was auff’d. Fern Mallis congratulated Kenley, but I’m not convinced that Kenley is the only one who received congrats from Ms. Mallis. I think this was a case of judicious editing. Nice try, editors, but we know that nobody in their right mind would have preferred Kenley’s collection to the other two!

The judges were kind to Kenley, and complimented her hand-painting, although the only negative thing that they said was that one of her dresses resembled Balenciaga. Kenley conceded that she needed to learn what’s going on in fashion, so she doesn’t keep recreating the looks of other designers.

Korto’s collection got mostly high marks, and the judges complimented how she wove her heritage and point of viwe into what she did, although they thought that some of the pieces were still overworked.

Leanne’s collection was praised for the diversity of her looks, but they were concerned that she had too many petals, and that it was too one-note. True, but they were so beautiful. I can see why the judges were concerend about how that would translate to the 40-look collection.

It was great to listen to the judges decide who won. I’m really glad I didn’t watch this live, or else I might have puked from nerves. I don’t know how the designers stood that kind of pressure while waiting for the verdict.

Kenley was out first. This is what I expected. She did not take it well. I expected this, too. Yay! Leanne won! I really thought she must have when I saw the collections last month, but it’s good to have confirmation. I felt bad for Korto and (to a lesser extent) Kenley, and I really wish both of them awesome, fulfilling careers in fashion. How much do I love the fact that Leanne had to record a Saturn commercial pretty much immediately after winning? So so much! She’s super crunchy and from Oregon and you know she probably doesn’t even drive (non-drivers, represent)!

This wasn’t the most exciting season of Project Runway ever, but I did end up enjoying it and the way it concluded.

Recap of Monday night tv

I didn’t watch as much television today as I thought I might. I watched yesterday’s Gossip Girl, Heroes, and Chuck, and read parts of several books. Heroes was better than it was last week but I’m convinced that it is essentially a really stupid show, so my praise falls into the category of “faint.” Gossip Girl was pretty good; there was a great catfight between Serena and the ever more deranged Blair, and pretty much every character came out looking interesting (except Dan Humphrey, because Dan Humphrey is the definition of boring). So that was fun. Hands down, though, Chuck was the winner of the night.

The plots of Chuck are pretty standard – spy stuff, stunt casting, more spy stuff, wacky hijinks!, meaningful character interaction, and the conclusion to the spy stuff; so it’s the non-spy stuff that really makes this program. This episode saw the return of Bryce Larkin, Chuck’s former college roommate and Sarah’s former partner who used to be dead but isn’t anymore, and who stuck the intersect in Chuck’s head in the first place. I like Bryce, because he’s kind of like a younger, hotter, American James Bond, and he’s so freaking sexy that I don’t actually mind his visits, even though they’re always bad news for Chuck.

So anyway, this episode was really well-acted, and managed to address one of the things about this show that has been bothering people since the fifth episode of last year: how useful can Chuck continue to be if the information in the Intersect is never updated? Did all of those bad guys stop doing bad things once the government compiled their information? Extremely doubtful. So thanks, Bryce, for leaving those shades for Chuck. And thanks, Chuck, for being dumb enough to take anything from Bryce Larkin. Bryce, who seemed to still have serious feelings for Sarah, watched the way she interacted with Chuck and realized that the two were totally in love, and not just acting out their cover. That love ended up getting in the way of the stated mission several times today, and directly led to Chuck getting fired from his cover job, Sarah ignoring the mission to rescue him, and then being unable to shoot a suspect, for fear of hitting Chuck (in an earlier, similar scenario with Bryce being held by the baddie, Sarah had no problem shooting the bad dude right in the middle of the forehead).

Chuck finally faced the facts: he and Sarah are never going to be a normal couple with a normal life, even when he’s no longer the Intersect (Chuck’s not yet aware that, if the General has her way, he’s going to be eliminated as soon as the new Intersect is functional). He’s not going to know stuff about her, he’s not going to be able to know what’s really going on in her life, and she’s so awesome that she can’t possibly be expected to do normal. In a scene filled with appropriate face-redness and blinking, Chuck breaks up with Sarah, who’s totally sad and moved, too. It was awesome.

Also awesome? Michael Strahan as a jock bully from the sporting goods store in the same shopping complex at the Buy More. Athletes usually make  terrible actors (see: Anderson, Brady on Sabrina the Teenage Witch – it’s been over a decade and I’m still rolling my eyes over that appearance), but Strahan was a natural. He didn’t mug for the camera or chew scenery, and he injected just the right amount of menace into the role of Mitt (horrible name, btw) to make me buy it. They should bring him back to sit on Nicole Richie, who put the “stunt” in stuntcasting and will be in next week’s episode for a girlfight with Sarah. I refuse to link to her, because if you’re reading this blog, you know who Nicole Ritchie is. Can they bring back Rachel Bilson? I really liked Lou, and Chuck could use some awesome-but-normal love right now.

Jerell speaks

I know that several tv shows and web sites get interviews with outgoing Project Runway contestants once they’ve been auff’d, but I’ve never really sought out those print, web, or television appearances. I’m interested in the program itself, and not so much what happens outside of it. Today, though, I read an interview that Jerell did with Entertainment Weekly, and it made me think well of him. I give him credit for his incredibly charitable view of Kenley’s behavior and of his own ouster, and wish him all the success in the world! I am sure that I mentioned that Jerell’s designs really grew on me over the course of the competition; in the beginning, I was convinced that he was one of the weakest links, and by the time he was judged off the show, I was sure that he had been robbed! It was pretty classy of him not to pick a favorite New York Fashion Week collection done by the remaining designers; I don’t think anybody could have blamed him for having an opinion, and I think it’s sweet that he kept it to himself.

Ow

In my pursuit of activities where I could possibly meet people who I don’t already know, I joined a volleyball group. It’s pretty much for beginners, and I’m more advanced than that, but I haven’t played in 5 years, and would definitely like to brush up before I participate in a serious volleyball league. So yesterday was our first meeting. Right now, I’m one big ouch. My shoulders, forearms, my lower back, and my upper legs all hurt. A lot. I’m not complaining though, because every bit that’s getting worked will just end up being awesome, right? That’s what I’m telling myself, anyway. The people are pretty nice, too, although I’m trying to recruit some more participants, since the group is for up to 20 people, and we didn’t have nearly that many yesterday. Too bad most of my friends live outside of New Jersey.